English Entertainment
‘Desperate Housewives’ wins big at Golden Globes
MUMBAI: It was a night when the show, that to a degree turned American television on its head Desperate Housewives was honoured. The show which galvanised Disney’s ABC Network won two Golden Globes for the best comedy and the best actress in a comedy series for Teri Hatcher.
In India the show aired live on Star World. Viewers can catch a repeat at 8 pm on 17 January. For Hatcher this was a fairy tale comeback. In her acceptance speech the actress admitted to having been considered a has been by Hollywood when she was shown the script. In fact exactly a year ago she watched the ceremony quietly at home eating popcorn.
Desperate Housewives also proved to be manna from heaven for its creator Marc Cherry. He said that he spent over two years as a struggling writer, unsuccessfully, trying to get interviews with the networks. It made this writer realise that often behind the glitz and glamour of Hollywood lies one long and hard struggle.
In the drama category the series about plastic surgery Nip/Tuck was named best television drama. It beat out more high profile contenders like HBO’s The Sopranos and Fox’s 24.
The event saw former US President Bill Clinton deliver a speech through videophone. He thanked the Hollywood Foreign Press Association for their efforts in contributing towards the Tsunami relief efforts. He also spoke about his initiative with the Unicef.
Leonardo DiCaprio who won the Best Actor in a motion picture drama for playing eccentric billionaire Howard Hughes in The Aviator also urged the eclectic gathering to contribute towards the Tsunami relief efforts. DiCaprio had shot the blockbuster The Beach in Thailand a few years ago. That country was one of the worst affected by the natural disaster.
Clint Eastwood got a standing ovation when he won for directing Million Dollar Baby. Over the years Eastwood has maintained a sense of humility which is remarkable for such an icon. In a typically understated manner he thanked his co-stars Hillary Swank who also won a Globe and Morgan Freeman. In addition to directing and acting which is very difficult to do on one project Eastwood also composed the music score. The audience also had a standing ovation for Robin Williams who got the lifetime achievement award.
English Entertainment
Ellison takes his Paramount-Warner Bros case straight to theater owners
The Skydance chief goes to CinemaCon with promises and a skeptical crowd waiting
CALIFORNIA: David Ellison strode into a room packed with thousands of cinema owners and executives at CinemaCon in Las Vegas on Thursday and did something rather bold: he looked them in the eye and asked them to trust him.
The chief executive of Paramount Skydance vowed that his company would release a minimum of 30 films a year if regulators greenlight its proposed $110 billion acquisition of Warner Bros Discovery, a deal that has made theater owners deeply, and loudly, nervous.
“I wanted to look every single one of you in the eye and give you my word,” Ellison told the crowd. “Once we combine with Warner Bros, we are going to make a minimum of 30 films annually across both studios.”
It was a confident pitch. Whether it landed is another matter. Cinema operators have already called on regulators to block the deal, and scepticism in the room was hardly concealed.
Ellison pushed back by pointing to recent form. Paramount, born from the merger of Paramount Global and Skydance Media last August, plans to release 15 films this year, nearly double the eight it put out in 2025. Progress, he argued, was already underway.
He also threw theater owners a bone they have long been chasing: all films, he pledged, would run exclusively in cinemas for a minimum of 45 days, drawing applause from a crowd that has spent years fighting for exactly that commitment across the industry.
“People can speculate all they want,” Ellison said, “but I am standing here today telling you personally that you can count on our complete commitment. And we’ll show you we mean it.”
Fine words. The regulators, however, will have the last one.
